A Placid North Dakota Asks, What Recession? While dozens of states, including neighboring ones, have desperately begun raising fees, firing workers, shuttering tourist attractions and even abolishing holiday displays to overcome gaping deficits, lawmakers this week in Bismarck, the capital, were contemplating what to do with a $1.2 billion budget surplus.

Need a job? 'Ya oughta go ta North Dakota'As the rest of the nation sinks into a 12th grim month of recession, North Dakota, at least up until now, has been quietly reveling in a picture so different that it might well be on another planet.

Montana Property values up average of 55 percentGov. Brian Schweitzer has committed that property taxes won’t rise, on a statewide average, because of reappraisal, Bucks said. However, there are usually winners and losers who wind up below or above these averages.

Western Montana's Regional Innovation Grant“By the term of the grant…strategic planning activities will result in a completed regional implementation plan, supported by secured resources and short and long term talent development strategies.

The Montana Department of Labor and Industry Awards $75,000 in Grants."The timber industry has been hit hard during these difficult economic conditions and now it's more important than ever to leave no stone unturned when exploring additional opportunities to help diversify the economy in Western Montana. These grants are a great first step in that direction", says Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly.

Gov. Schweitzer invites you to Harvesting Clean EnergyEach year, the Harvesting Clean Energy Conference is held in a different state around the region --Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana – giving each state a chance to showcase successes in rural clean energy. This year, I'm proud to say, the 9th annual conference is coming back to Big Sky Country.

Careers

How Interviewers Identify The Best CandidatesThe preponderance of the evidence favors interview questions that ask about what interviewees actually did (“when” questions) and not what they would do (“if” questions). Although situational questions are not without merit, they might be more appropriately used as a test than in an interview.

HP Goes All In With An IT TransformationEven with the economy in a fierce downturn, HP CIO Randy Mott preaches a high-risk, capital-intensive approach to transforming IT operations. But will other CIOs follow his lead?

Advice for startups seeking venture capital"Almost by definition the entrepreneurs who have the moxie to walk through your door in tough times tend to have better ideas," says Mike Goguen, a VC with Sequoia Capital in Menlo Park, Calif.

Making connections for Indian education“Not a lot of Native Americans are going into the hard sciences,” said Diane Friend, a University of Montana astronomy professor and part of BSSP. “That shouldn't be the case. In K-8 classrooms, we should be exciting everybody.”

OVP says it's committed to OregonVenture firms outside Oregon have shown fresh interest in the state lately. Seattle-based Madrona Venture Group and Voyager Capital each stationed new representatives in Portland this year.

Internet Group Wants Broadband In Every PotA coalition of more than 120 public-interest organizations plans to host a series of town hall meetings to discuss the future of the Internet and public access to broadband.

Report: USA ignoring climate change threat - Yale University "The Climate Crisis and the Adaptation Myth""Despite a half century of climate change that has already significantly affected temperature and precipitation patterns and has already had widespread ecological and hydrological impacts, and despite a near certainty that the United States will experience at least as much climate change in the coming decades just as a result of current atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, little adaptation has occurred," reports Robert Repetto, the report author and, until recently, a Yale professor of economics.

Efficiency Is Our Best Untapped Energy SourceThe most important way to speed it up would be to reward utilities for cutting our bills, not selling us more energy. That reform is adopted in a handful of states but pending in about another two dozen. And there’s a lot of barrier-busting needed at all levels of government as well as firms and households.

Carbon offsetting for the InternetIf you publish any kind of website, including a blog, you can go here and download free software that will track your page views, then calculate a dollar value for the amount of rainforest-killing, iceberg-melting CO2 your website generates each month.

Destructive Koobface virus turns up on Facebook"A few other viruses have tried to use Facebook in similar ways to propagate themselves," Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in an e-mail. He said a "very small percentage of users" had been affected by these viruses.

Big spam operation takes a hitHave you noticed less spam and phishing e-mails over the last few weeks from banks saying your “account has been compromised” or pitches from online pharmacies selling all kinds of pills?